26.5.09

IN THE NEWS

Jimmy Robertson has won the English Amateur Championship, snooker’s oldest title, with a 9-8 defeat of David Craggs in Sheffield.

Robertson, 24, is thus eligible to return to the main tour next season having played on the pro circuit during the 2002/03 season.

The amateur title was first contested in 1916. It was won in 1987 by Mark Rowing who last weekend defeated Colin Norton 6-4 to win the English seniors title.

The Irish national title has been won by Martin McCrudden, who beat David Hogan 8-6. However, Brendan O’Donoghue finished top of the RIBSA rankings and will therefore be nominated for a place on the ranking event circuit.

Mark Boyle (no relation, as far as I’m aware, to Susan) is also heading for the pro tour after winning the Scottish title with a 7-0 defeat of Ross Vallance.

Michael White is the new Welsh champion, Warren Horsley has retained his South African national title and Robin Hull, whose professional career ended because of illness, has won the Finnish Championship.

Meanwhile Ronnie O’Sullivan, for whom running has become an obsession, was in Derby today launching a new charity challenge.

"Mark Boyle (no relation, as far as I’m aware, to Susan) is also heading for the pro tour after winning the Scottish title with a 7-0 defeat of Ross Vallance."

is it right that players gets on tour having won their national titles

there might be better players in England that would benefit the tour but because tour places are given to scottish national champions etc those English players or whatever are missing out.

surely the best players should have the best opportunity to get on tour and not based on any nationality.it isn't fair that those players might have been born English where the pool of players are greater to choose from. but because places are given to wales or Scotland players based on nationality they miss out.

I have to agree with anon 4.01pm and also the other anon 5.30pm as there is without doubt some weaker players getting on the tour over some decent PIOS players. I mean how would James Wattana of faired on the PIOS tour for example?

Ronnie is definitely the new people's champion. If it wasn't for him our sport would no longer be televised. Well done to him for giving up his time to help disadvantaged kids. There's not many players today with the charisma to help out a charity like Ronnie.

If snooker is a product there's not too many customers! Maybe there needs to be some blue sky thinking? Should we run it up the flagpole and see what people think?

I agree to an extent with the OP. Snooker will keep going when RoS stops playing but at the moment it can ill afford to stage events without him. Ask any sponsor who they want as top billing and you know the answer.

They can decide with WSA beforehand whether they will be nominating their national champion, or the number one off their ranking lists

In the case of Jimmy Robertson, he finished Number One on the EASB Pro Ticket rankings and won his place through that.

There isn't an automatic place for the English amateur champion.

there is one more place up for grabs this weekend for England when they hold their 32 man play offs.

Scotland nominate their No 1, so do Wales, and Ireland, for the very reasons that have been mentioned on the comments. A player has to prove himself right through the season to finish number one, whereas the national champion might only enter just that one event and might even be a fluke winner. (A one hit wonder!)

and one more national championship last weekend. David Palmiero from the Montpelier Club is the 2009 French Champion.

i think the best players should get maximum chance of making the tour.

at the moment we could have 30 english players better than any welsh player but chances of most of thoes 30 making the main tour is limited while welsh players who arent as good make the tour because they were lucky to be welsh.

new pros get on tour thinking lets play like Ronnie all out atack before they know it they lost 7 or 8 matches to hardened pros jerneymen if you like and they are back where they came from.

i think the talent is there but have they got the patience to work hard or do they expect instant success.

just look at jimmy robertson he was on tour in 2002/2003 it took him 5 years to get back and hes droped straight back down again so if these young players dont grasp on to theire place getting back there isnt as easy as you think.

I think that the ranking system plays a part, but against the experience of the players occupying the top 64 places it is always going to be tough for them to break through.

I mean this past season for the first time I was able to see the qualifying matches and I found it noticeable how in some cases, certain young players would look really good in their first match against fellow newcomers, only to find themselves tied in knots during their second and third round matches. Obviously there are exceptions to this but I can see why it might take the youngsters a couple of attempts on the main tour to find their feet and establish themselves among the 96.

These new players, hopefully there's something about them, the so called X-factor. We need new characters in the game today. Most of today's players are so boring. Not like yesteryear, when we had the likes of Higgins and White. Jimmy White is still one of the biggest draws in snooker.

It always has been a struggle for newly promoted players, but far more so in recent season.

The reasons are manyfold.Probably the first is the ranking points, whereby they come in on the "lowest players" points, but that wouldn't stop them being in the TOp 8 on the one year list.

The secondary reason would be there are far too few ranking events for them to learn their craft and earn their points. At the moment we're looking at 6 ranking events for 2009-10. It should be double that.

The best test is the PIOS, which replicates the playing conditions, has probably 20 or more professional quality or experience opponents, and matches at least best of 7.

Personally I'd like to see PIOS matches made best of 9, to replicate the main tour qualifiers and also provide a stronger test to players.

But the bottom line for new pros is that "you can't buy experience". However hard players think they practice, however well they do in their national events or the PIOS, they are still taking a giant leap when they go up to the Main Tour.

of course global is right. the high percentage have a tough time on the pro circuit as theres only 32 places in the top 32, funnily enough, and anyone outside this isnt making a great living IMHO from WS tournaments